In many environments, it is desirable to detect accumulations of potentially hazardous gases before a hazardous situation exists. An industrial plant, for example, may deploy a gas detection system including gas sensors distributed throughout the plant. Such a system may also include one or more central stations, which receive signals from the gas sensors. If one of the gas detectors detects an excessive amount of hazardous gas, for example, then an alarm condition is triggered at the central station. Such gas detection systems may further alert an operator so that an action may be taken to preclude a potentially harmful result within the plant.
While such systems are effective in fixed locations, such as when located near industrial equipment in an industrial plant, these types of systems are not portable or adaptable to changing conditions. Additionally, such conventional gas detection systems typically do not provide quick centralized access to information regarding gas detection events, including the location of the event(s) and location-based gas detection historical information. Further, if the conventional system does provide centralized access, expensive wiring is required to connect the gas detectors to the central station.
In some prior art gas detection systems, a personal belt-worn device may be utilized for detecting gas concentrations within a particular location. Such gas detectors may provide information regarding the state of the gas concentration as a function of time. A central station operator, however, does not have access to location information and the gas concentration information as a function of time is not available until a much later time, when the device's daily log may be transferred to a personal computer.
Based on the foregoing, a need exists for an improved wireless location-based gas detection system and method. A need also exists for wirelessly detecting location information associated with a hazardous gas event along with time information, as described in greater detail herein.